Big Pictures charged between $250,000 and $1m for some pictures, but documents filed at Company's House by administrators RSM Tenon show the agency collapsed owing more than £82,000 to photographers and other agencies, reports The Guardian.

Lyons, famed for his colourful mohawk haircut, has now returned to his hometown of Geelong, Australia, where he has already launched a number of bars, restaurants and nightclubs.

He is an "international ambassador" for the port city and is reportedly considering running for Mayor.

In a recent interview with The Weekly Review, Lyons revealed that he plans to launch a new online stock photography archive, called Celeb Stock, which will offer 25m online images for varying prices.

"It may be used by basic blogger at home for $40, to [the] biggest publisher, possibly $20,000 … Photographers can upload and see their sales almost instantaneously," he told the site.

Discussing Big Pictures, Lyons said: "Big Pictures was charging anywhere between $250,000 to $1 million a picture. I didn't see the future in the current dinosaur that was Big Pictures."

Lyons, who gave evidence before the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics and standards in 2012, said that the paparazzi industry has had a "major shake-up" in recent years.

"There was a scourge in the industry, an underbelly of the industry which didn't appeal to me. I changed my perspective in what I felt was ethical," he told The Weekly Review.

"It's like any business. You always get your bad eggs. The whole industry needed - and has had - a major shake-up.

"I got very depressed that the celebrities used their images when it was right for them and then the next minute they'd sue you."